Eric Gordon offers nothing but praise for the 76ers

Last night, the Houston Rockets narrowly escaped with a victory in Philadelphia against the up-and-coming 76ers. While they trailed most of the game, a series of defensive stops and big shots down the stretch led to a game-winning opportunity for star guard Eric Gordon. Gordon, in the final seconds of the game received a pass from James Harden, took a pump fake and dribbled one step out of the corner for a three as time expired.

In order to get the shot off, Gordon had to find a way to navigate around the massive arms of Joel Embiid – easier said than done. With Gordon catching the ball with under 2 seconds remaining on the clock, it was a huge risk for him to take a dribble but it was the only possible way for him to give the Rockets a chance.

“He would’ve blocked it,” said Gordon when discussing the extra dribble. “That’s why I had to pump fake. You just got to be prepared to try and knock down shots like that. You know, if you miss it, you miss it. Always, every shot I try to take, I try to make… whenever you have under 2 seconds, you have at least one dribble.”

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Gordon clearly sounded very thankful that the shot went in and it’s no surprise that he’s happy given how much praise he had for the Sixers. The Sixers are notably one of the youngest teams in the NBA with a number of their key players being recent, high-profile draft picks such as Embiid, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz. Simmons nearly notched his second triple-double of the season and Embiid has been one of the biggest difference-makers in the NBA as a whole but has obviously struggled with injuries since being drafted.

“It means a lot,” he started. “We needed this. A lot of guys are out and we just needed a spark – we needed this. And, for us to beat a good team, we have to win in games like this because we’re never going to be out the game. We’ve been down like this many times before, many times, even Golden State, we was down by a lot and we came back and won. We just played better defense towards the end of the game, which allowed us to score on offense. They play hard, man. The Sixers, they’re a pretty good team. We just played better defense towards the end and we made plays.”

A popular pick to sneak into the Eastern Conference playoffs, the 76ers are a team that’s definitely on the rise and in good hands for years to come. Gordon would wind up finishing with 29 points on the night upping his season scoring average to 24.6 points per game. He has hit 10 combined threes in his last two games and has been getting to the free throw line at a higher rate than any other season – he made 10-out-of-12 from the line on Wednesday. The Rockets will be back in action on Friday as they head to Charlotte to take on the 2-2 Charlotte Hornets.

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